The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1887-03-11
WASHINGTON LETTER
tFrom our Regular Correspondent
WAsHtNaToN, ID, c., March Z. 1888

from our Regular Correspondentl
WASHINGTON, d. c., March Z, 1887
The Forty Ninth Congress has pass
ed into history. It leaves a record
which compares most favorably with
that OF any Congress of recent years,
and surpasses that of almost every Con.
gress which was divided by the two
great political parties into two hostile
camps.
1t afforded striking example, too,
of the constant increase in the volume
of desired legislation which has been
going on for the last six or eight years.
More bills were introduced in both
Houses of the Forty-Ninth, more com.
mittee reports were made, more bills
were passed, more became laws and
more were vetoed than ever before bv
any Congress.
There were introduced into the
House during the two sessions 11,25S
bills and 263 joint resolutions, on which
over 5000 reports were made This
was several thousand more bills and
over thousand more reports than were
made by the Forty Eighth Congress,
which had, IN its turn beaten the rec.
ord. In the Senate there were intro
duced over 5000 bills on which nearly
two thousand written reports were
made, being upward of 500 more bills
than by the record breaking Forty
Eighth. The death.roll also of the last
Congress was unusually long conpris
ing thirteen names.
The total number of laws enacted
was about 1890 while 1872 were vetoed
by the President, making twenty. one
more instances of the exercise of the
Presidential prerogaiive of veto than
had occurred from the foundation Of
the Government down TO the begin
ming of this Congress. Only one pri
vate pension bill and one public bill
namely that providing for a Govern
meut building at Dayton, Ohio, sue
ceed"d in passing both houses over the
Presidents veto, AS to what became
of various important bills which failed,
lack OF space will forbid me to tell
heir whole story in detail Quite
number of them, however, which were
passed by both houses, never reached
the President because of differance, in
regard to them between the two houses.
Congress was in session the whole
night preceding the day of adjournment
The House, with unusual pertinacitv.
sat continuously from eight o'clock
Thursday night until Friday noon, the
hour at which the session expired. The
usual scenes of last night we're enact.
ed. The Capitol was filed with peo
pie who wanted to see the close, but
only small portion of whom could
gain admittance to the already crowd.
ed galleries.
Congress reverses the usual circum-
stances which associate themselves
with death scene. 1t does away with
all solemnity and quite, decorous hush
and suppression of noise. People who
want to witness the most riotous scenes
of which a representative body can be
guilty, have only to crowd the CALLER.
les during the dying hours of Congress.
Ii they want to see men of reputed dig
uity in undigniied antics, they will not
be disappointed for there is license
then which at other times is not indulg-
ed. Never since Congress had an ex-
istence has there been such confusion,
haste and general disregard of parli.
mentary safeguards in the transaction
of business, az characterized the pro-
ceedngs of Thursday, Thursday night
and Friday morning.
When 1t was rumored, about noon
on Friday, that the President was on
his way to the Capitol at the request
OF Speaker Carlisle, who informed him
that certain scarcely finished bills
could be saved from death in no other
way, the crowd In the Capitol began
to surge toward the Senate wing, the
Presidents room being in that end of
the Capitol. The result was that the
police force had more than it could do
to control the swaying mass of human
ity that wanted to see the President.
congressman, also, with varying sue
cess, made vigorous efforts to squeeze
their way through the crowd to inquire
if the arbiter of the destiny of certain
bills IN which they were interested had
arrived.
He came with several members of
his Cabinet, repaired to his room and
settled down to business. But the
clcck now pointed to twelve. There
was limit to the speed and endurance
OF clerical fingers, and the tagged out
enrolling clerks who had been running
race with time won only in the case
of the District Appropriation bill.
And this was due to that venerable
officer, Capt Bassett, who armed him
self with gas-lighter and (as he has
done biennially for a quarter of GEN.
tury) mounted chair and pulled back
the hands of the Senate clock. The
President signed this promptly, but
the hands of the clock crept up to
twelve again before the Deficiency bill
cOuld ba FnurnssaI an1 IL fa1aJ